The last time the University of Hawaii appeared in a bowl game, then-head coach Greg McMackin got upset with an assistant who had the audacity to publicly suggest being in a bowl game wasn’t enough, that the Rainbow Warriors needed to actually win one.
Six years later, the challenge remains the same.
There is just more urgency now as UH prepares for its Dec. 24 meeting with Middle Tennessee State in the Hawaii Bowl.
On one hand, UH has lost its last three bowl appearances and none of them have been close. All have been by 27 points or worse, which was noteworthy in that the ‘Bows were favored in one (Tulsa in 2010), were a two-point underdog in another (Notre Dame in 2008) and an eight-point underdog (Georgia in the 2007 season). Moreover, two of them were played in the supposedly friendly confines of Aloha Stadium where the banners tell us, “Protect This House.”
Nor was there always the kind of focus the occasion required. Between late-night partying, academic issues and peripheral meanderings such as taking shots at Notre Dame’s “dance” UH too often got away from the task at hand.
Mostly you came away with the feeling that just getting to a bowl was the culmination of the whole season-long exercise, a kick-back and relax reward. The perception was that a win, if it came, would just be frosting.
Never, perhaps, was that more evident than in the 62-35 blowout by Tulsa. That embarrassment, it will be remembered, was one of the points where things really soured in a hurry for McMackin, who was forced out a year later.
Fast forward to 2016 where it is remarkable that, after a bowl drought of five seasons, head coach Nick Rolovich has gotten UH to the postseason in his rookie year. The task Rolovich took on in his inaugural year was akin to attempting to turn around an aircraft carrier. And a school-record of 46,000 miles of travel did not make it any easier.
Yes, you can say the Rainbow Warriors caught a break in that there were not enough bowl-eligible teams to fill out the entire 80-team bowl lineup and, at 6-7, they were one of four teams to get an exemption into the postseason. But there were openings in 2015, too, and UH only managed to win half as many games much with the same roster.
Now it is up to the ‘Bows to make the most of the opportunity the bowl glut has allowed them. Win and they close out the season at 7-7, which will look a whole lot better in the final accounting and for years to come than the 6-8 alternative.
And we all know how disappointing UH has been on national TV in recent years.
A victory over an MTSU team that is a respectable 8-4 would also go a long way toward answering talk of being undeserving, precisely the kind of dialogue that a 6-8 finish would further invite.
But mostly the ‘Bows need a victory to maintain momentum and underline the progress that is being made. It would be one more thing to sell as coaches go into living rooms to make their final recruiting pitches in advance of the Feb. 1 national letter of intent signing date.
The euphoria of reaching a bowl game carried the ‘Bows into the first postseason practices. Now, it is the mission of winning a bowl game for the first time in 10 seasons that needs to carry them through it and the Christmas Eve game.
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529- 4820
